Window regulators on vehicles commonly employ sector gears in order to reduce the effort required to open and close a window. The prior art sectors gears are “pie slice” shaped. The outer curved edged has a series of teeth, while the narrow end has an aperture defining the center of rotation of the gear. The intermediate portion between the outer periphery and the center of rotation is often removed in order to reduce weight of the sector gear.
The prior art sector gears are stamped from sheet metal. If the sector gear has an angle of about 45°, a plurality of sector gears can be stamped in an alternating fashion in order to reduce scrap. However, the intermediate portion must still be stamped out and discarded or recycling.
If the sector gear has an angle of greater than 45° (FIG. 3), the sector gears cannot be arranged in an efficient manner. The size of sheet metal required to stamp a single gear is approximately the length of the longest dimension by the narrow dimension. The corners and the intermediate portions are discarded or recycled.